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OPINION: Abdulkareem, The Deaf And His Son

Published

5 months ago

April 15, 2025

By Suyi Ayodele

Hans Christian Andersen (April 2, 1805 – August 4, 1875), the Danish fiery-tales author once quipped: “Where words fail, music speaks.” This quote summarises the transformative power of music to address issues mere words of mouth could not convey. Music, as Literature, is deep.

The African society of old relied more on music, especially derisive songs, to address social misconducts and speak truths to power. The various festival songs in the African Indigenous Religion AIR) are composed as conveyors of the society’s disapproval of inappropriate behaviours by those in authority.

One analysis of Andersen’s quote above says that music on its own has an inherent ability “to convey emotions, tell stories, and communicate a range of human experiences without relying on verbal communication. It serves as a universal language that can touch the depths of our souls and transcend the limitations of words alone. At its core, the quote emphasizes the limitations of language while highlighting the boundless potential of music.”

I once heard a tale of a man who drew the sword and beheaded a drummer for using the instrumentality of the sounds of his talking drum to address an infraction the valiant once committed. Bards and raconteurs too, had in the past, incurred the fury of monarchs and those in authority and paid dearly for their boldness to show kings the pus oozing from the royalty’s eyes.

Whatever you want the deaf to hear, our elders advise that we should say it to the hearing of his child. Whether clinically or deliberately deaf, the favourite child has a way of getting the people’s messages across to his deaf father. The deliberately unfeeling leaders have their weak points in their favourite children. That is why, when the people are pushed to the wall, they say the unprintable things about their leaders to the hearing of the leaders’ children.

There is always a favourite child in every family. That is the type of child who has the ears of his parents, especially the father. For one to get the head of such a family’s attention, it is advisable to go through the favourite child.

I once led a group of my colleagues in my last employment to the palace of a traditional ruler in Esanland, Edo State, to resolve a naughty community issue affecting our company’s operations in his domain. We waited for close to three hours without seeing the monarch. Everyone who had gone into the inner recesses of the palace to inform the king of our presence came back with the same assurance: “The Onojie will see you soon.”

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We were almost losing hope of having an audience with the monarch when a young lady sauntered out of the inner chamber to the open court. An elderly man, who knew when we came into the palace, beckoned on me and whispered that we should approach the lady and ask for her assistance. The princess, he said, was the only one who could get the monarch to attend to us.

As the lady was about to enter the inner chamber again, I approached her. We exchanged pleasantries and I explained our mission and how long we had waited to see her father. I pleaded that she should help tell the monarch that we were still waiting. She was a charming, beautiful damsel. And very mannerly, too. She promised to help and went inside.

About 15 minutes later, the lady emerged again, walked up to where we were clustered and asked us to follow her. She led us to a different section of the palace where we met the Onojie on his throne. We paid the necessary homage, and the monarch waved us to our seats and apologised for keeping us waiting. He also asked the princess to wait to hear our petition.

In less than 30 minutes, we were through. The monarch approved all our proposals and asked the princess to take us to another man, a chief, who would implement the decisions. We left the palace happily because we encountered the king’s favourite child who took our case to her father. It is true that omo ina laa ran si ina (you send a fiery child to a fiery father)

The last two years have been terrible in all ramifications for Nigerians. The pains and agony occasioned by the misgovernance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are just unimaginable! The man, called Jagaban, has succeeded in substituting his promise of hope with the acute reality of hopelessness! We have cried; we have wailed. Tinubu and his government remained deaf to our plights; eternally pococurante! Very sad!

Then one of us got wise and went back to the ancient wisdom of our forebears. This man realised that deaf and sadistic as Tinubu and his government are, there is a spoiled brat of the President who could take our message of pain to his father. He decided to explore that line of ancient communication that for whatever we want the deaf to hear and understand, we should say it to the hearing of his child. And not just any child of the deaf, this time around, it must be the favourite child of the deaf. The man went to the studio and waxed an album.

This is what the iconoclast, Eedris Abdulkareem, did with his latest hit album: “Tell Your Papa.” Abdulkareem is not new to protest songs. He once drew the attention of the General Olusegun Obasanjo’s government to the shenanigans going on in the country under the watch of Ebora Owu, when the artiste sang: “Nigeria Jaga Jaga.”

In that 2004 album, Abdulkareem said that insecurity had taken over the entire nation and everything was like the ‘higgledy-piggledy and topsy-turvy’ world of the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka’s “The Forest of a Thousand Daemons.” Obasanjo’s immediate response was a curse that it was Abdulkareem’s life that was ‘jaga jaga’ and not Nigeria. He went ahead to ban the song from our radio stations. The ban was inutile as the song, with its four other remixes continues to be a blast till date! That was Nigeria 19 year ago.

What Abdulkareem saw 19 years ago in “Nigeria Jaga Jaga” is nothing compared to what the present ruiners have turned the nation to. Nigerians today no longer hear gunshots but the sounds of bazookas in the hands of bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and killer herdsmen that have laid the country waste! At a time, there were rumours that the nation’s security outfits had to pay a huge sum of money to buy off one of the arms in the hands of bandits that posed a huge threat to the Presidential Aircraft of the then President, Muhammadu Buhari.

So, if today, Abdulkareem sings: “Seyi, tell your papa country hard/Tell your papa people dey die/Tell your papa this one don pass jagajaga/Seyi, how far?/ I swear your papa no try/Too much empty promises/On behalf of Nigerians, take our message to him/Kidnappers dey kill Nigerians/”, is that not the naked truth? If the artiste goes ahead to say: “Seyi, try travel by road without your security make you feel the pains of fellow Nigerians/You dey fly private jets, insecurity no be your problem…”, is that not a good challenge, and is he not just stating the obvious?

Even the blind could see that Seyi Tinubu is not just the favourite child of President Tinubu, he qualifies as the nation’s Assistant President, given the receptions he gets anywhere he travels to. Some visiting state governors are not accorded as much protocols and attention Seyi gets whenever he visits any state. Videos of his presidential convoys as the spoilt son of the president ‘tours’ the states of the Federation speak volumes of the influence of the son over his absentee President of a father!

At a time, Seyi was reported to be attending the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting until wisdom prevailed and his father excused him. Nigerians have no doubt about the fact that Seyi is the nation’s ‘Son Excellence’, the unelected ‘Assistant President’ of Nigeria. Unarguably, the boy is more powerful, more visible and wields superior powers than the loiters around Aso Rock and many aides of the President.

That being the case, what is wrong in asking the President’s son to take the message of our pain and agony to his father, our tormentor-in-chief? What is the position of the Holy Book, the Bible, about the father being in the son and the son being in the father (John 14:11)? Whoever else could have done the job of a go-between in this circumstance between a deaf Presidency and a suffering populace more than the favourite son of the President?

What then is the colour of the problems of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), and its monitoring-spirit unit known as the Directorate of Broadcast Monitoring, in banning Abdulkareem’s latest song from our airwaves? Whose interest is NBC serving? And if we may ask again: what threat does “Tell Your Papa” constitute? Why is it that every dissenting voice is considered an insult to the imperial President Tinubu, who keeps behaving like the proverbial king’s executioner that dreads the presence of the sword near his own neck?

The art of protest songs is as old as human agitation for a better society. Music and politics, many opined, appear inseparable. As early as 1931, Florence Reece ((April 12, 1900 – August 3, 1986), the wife of a miner and unionist, Sam Reece, wrote the song, “Which Side Are You On?” The song was in solidarity with the miners of Kentucky, who were in battle with the exploitative mine owners. The bold lady wrote the song on an old calendar she found in her kitchen after State agents who were after her husband harassed her and her children throughout the night.

In 1964, Bob Dylan, the 83-year-old American singer, released “The Times They Are A-Changin”, Bob Marley gave us “Get Up Stand Up” in 1973. Gil Scott-Heron sang “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” in 1971 and our legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti used the instrumentality of music to torment bad leadership in Nigeria. The one fondly called Abami Eda (the weird one) troubled both military and civilian administrations in Nigeria to no end. He extended the whip to Africa and the entire world. His “Zombie” (1977), “Beast of No Nation” (1989), and his 1980 “I.T.T. (International Thief Thief)”, are many examples of revolutionary protest songs by the prolific musicologist, the best and most daring of his epoch. To date, Fela’s name rings as the dominant voice of the one crying in the wilderness for a better Nigeria.

Though the Nigerian nation went after Fela on many occasions as he was jailed, whipped on the road and had his house burnt and his mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti killed, Fela was not deterred. Rather than kill his spirit, the State harassment propelled Fela to higher heights, and almost three decades after he died, Fela’s music remains evergreen.

Nigerian leaders need to learn. Those in government need to listen, read and be schooled! If those in NBC are lettered, they would have found wisdom in the assertion of scholars on the interwoven nature of music and politics.

For instance, on March 28, 2014, the Cambridge University Press reproduced in its online platform, the article titled: “Fight the Power: The Politics of Music and the Music of Politics.” That piece had earlier appeared in An International Journal of Comparative Politics, Volume 38, issue 1, 2003, pp 113-130. In the article, it is stated that “Popular music has a long and varied association with politics. It has provided the soundtrack to political protest and been the object of political censorship; politicians have courted pop stars and pop stars …” We must add, however, that that is what leaders in sane climes of the world where dissenting voices are accorded their due respects as agents of social change, do!

Has NBC gone to check how that indiscretion on its part has promoted Eedris Abdulkareem and his latest song? Has that regulatory body asked itself, the same question Florence Reece asked 94 years ago when she penned: “Which Side Are You On?” After banning “Tell Your Papa” from our airwaves, has NBC been able to ban it from the internet and our subconscious?

And as we await the return of President Tinubu from his France trip to Aso Rock Villa, may we all rise and tell the President say: Presido, country hard/ people dey die/This one don pass jagajaga/ / We swear, Presido, you no try/ Na lie I talk?

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Community Attributes Access Road To Reduction In Maternal Mortality In Bauchi

Published

32 minutes ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

A cross-section of residents in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State has attributed the reduction in maternal mortality to the ongoing construction and rehabilitation of the Kirjaule–Lame roads.

Mr. Samila Jauro, who spoke on behalf of the community, made the disclosure during a media tour of ongoing Bauchi State projects in the area.

He explained that in the past, no fewer than 50 pregnant women and their babies had lost their lives due to delays in accessing healthcare caused by the poor condition of roads.

“We have lost many of our pregnant women and their unborn babies in the past because of bad roads.

“But the present administration has changed our lives through its infrastructural development,” Jauro said.

While commending the state government, he appealed for the electrification of Kirjauke community.

“We are grateful for the road project, but we still call on the governor to provide us with electricity.

For the past 18 years, we have had no source of power,” he added.

The Bauchi State Government, through the Ministry of Works, in 2023 awarded a 40.5-kilometer road construction and rehabilitation projects in the aforementioned sites.

Speaking on the progress of the projects, the Site Engineer, Mr. Ado Shehu, said the project had reached 75 percent completion.

“The Kirjaule–Lame and Magama–Gumau roads were awarded at the end of November 2023.

“Some portions are already completed, while others are at the second layer and shoulder stage to ensure a successful outcome.

“The duration of the project according to the contract is 36 months.

” But with 75 percent already completed, the project will be finished ahead of schedule,” he said.

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Empower Girl-Child in STEM Education – Women Engineers To Nigerian Government

Published

56 minutes ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), has called on the Nigerian government and all stakeholders to empower Girl-Child in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in the country.

Dr Adebisi Osim, the National President of APWEN, made the call in Bauchi on Sunday, during the 2025 APWEN, Bauchi state chapter’s public lectures and inauguration of new executives.

According to her, when a girl child is empowered in STEM, the country would not only be creating an engineer or a scientist, but also creating a problem solver and an innovator who might design drought-resistant crops to solve food insecurity.

Represented Engr. Esther Ago, the North Central Coordinator of APWEN, Osim said that this Girl-Child would develop sustainable water purification systems for the rural communities, build intelligent systems to manage traffic in the growing cities among others.

“We live in a world shaped by technology. From the smartphones in our hands to the complex infrastructure that powers our cities, STEM is the language of the future.

“To exclude women from this conversation is to silence half of the world’s intellect, creativity, and problem-solving potential. It is to fly a plane with only one wing.

“To our leaders and policymakers, we urge you to continue to champion policies that make STEM education accessible, attractive to girls, invest in laboratories, sponsor scholarships, and celebrate female tech champions,” she said.

“Empowering the girl child in STEM is not a charitable act, it’s a strategic imperative for Nigeria’s technological advancement and economic prosperity. It is the surest path to building a future that is innovative, inclusive, and sustainable,” she said.

Earlier speaking, Engr. Mercy Asabe, immediate past Chairperson, APWEN Bauchi, said the lectures would provide valuable opportunities for them to engage with important ideas, spark meaningful discussions, and foster a deeper understanding of STEM and Artificial Intelligence.

“I am confident that the insights shared today will inspire, educate and challenge us to think critically on global issues,” she said.

Engr. Jamila Adamu, the newly elected Chairperson, APWEN Bauchi chapter who spoke on behalf of others, said their mission was to inspire and mentor the girl-child to embrace STEM.

She added that they would show them that engineering was not a field reserved for men alone, but a platform where women could thrive, innovate, and lead.

“Our mission is also to strengthen professional support for women engineers, ensuring that our members have the opportunities, training, and networks to excel in their careers.

“It’s also to collaborate with government, academia, and industry, building partnerships that will break barriers, create opportunities, and drive sustainable development,” she said.

Adamu affirmed that APWEN Bauchi Chapter remained committed to being a catalyst for change, promising to reach schools, engage communities, mentor, empower girls with the confidence to dream, and lead by example.

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OPINION: A Minister’s Message To Me

Published

2 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

“You may forward this to him to reflect on…if he’s redeemable!” A Tinubu minister from the South-West sent this message to a respected, elderly journalist now in his mid-70s. It was meant for me and the Oga did as instructed; he forwarded the message to me. I read what the big man wanted me to read. It was someone’s reaction to my column on the Alaafin-Ooni problem and what I had described as Yoruba’s “curse of enlightenment.”

The minister said he got it from a Yoruba WhatsApp group, author unknown but he believed so much in what the writer wrote that he thought he should get Olagunju to read it “if he is redeemable.”

And what is in that message of redemption? I read it slowly and carefully because it came from a big man, a minister who had been where I am today: “Undoubtedly a researched article…but this writer is the archetypal Yoruba! He’s the most guilty of all the Yoruba negative attributes he so comprehensively enumerated. A content analysis of his writings shows a consistent, persistent and relentless attack on fellow Yoruba Tinubu under the same ‘curse of enlightenment’! If truly he’s disconcerted about the Yoruba ‘curse’, then he should engage himself in deep introspection – as all the Yoruba abhorrent attitudes he lampoons, he manifests with glee in his vituperations against Tinubu!”

The above is the core content of what the minister said I should read for my redemption. The man described Tinubu as “the first real Yoruba man to attain Nigeria’s presidency.” I read that part and understood the man’s problem.

The minister was not the writer, but he was the Postmaster-General who dispatched the ‘letter’ for delivery to me. I have the minister’s telephone number but I replied him through the same Oga and pleaded that it should be forwarded to him. While I do not owe the complainant any explanation for what I do, I thought the minister had obviously not been reading what he should be reading; or he had been reading the wrong thing. Because no one is completely bad, and no one is comprehensively good, I had written columns that were positive about some positive steps taken by the Tinubu government. I sent the link of one of such columns to the minister through Oga: “I wrote this last year in defence of Tinubu. Did they beg me or pay me before I wrote it? They probably want a slave (a phlegm eater. There was one like that in Old Oyo, serving His Imperial Majesty. His title was Ajitó oba má p’òfóló. That position no longer exists).”

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The minister got the message and replied: “Very predictable! I expected that reaction. It’s still along the same line of ‘curse of enlightenment’. Point is – there’s a preponderance of Tinubu bashing that far outstrips any isolated pro -write up.” The minister then drifted into some Hubert Ogunde ‘Yoruba Ronu’ song.

Saul going to Damascus was on a mission to persecute Christians before a heavenly light turned him to Paul. I was happy that, like Ananias, I laid my hand on the minister and got him ‘redeemed’ from seeing the columnist as an inveterate enemy who sees absolutely no good in the king and his gilded palace. His reaction shows an admission that, at least there is now an “isolated pro-writeup” from a Yoruba man who is an ‘enemy’ of his brother, the president. If the minister had been a Muslim, I would have exclaimed Allahu Akbar (God is Great) at his redemption.

What I canvassed in my article on peace among Yoruba oba was unity of the race. What the minister and his writer demanded was conspiracy of silence by an entire race. Unity means togetherness, it means oneness of purpose; it does not mean sheepish following. I consulted a text here and it told me that true unity does not require uniformity of thought; it means standing together on some issues and respecting differences in others, even allowing for reasonable discourse. I agree with that reasoning. A people sworn to a conspiracy of silence are a people heading towards perdition. Their motive is to protect selfish interests and avoid difficult truths. Their spring water, in the words of the Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah, is flowing towards the desert. Its end is extinction.

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The minister and the anonymous critic of the columnist want all Yoruba to sleep and put all their heads on the same pillow. They thought every Yoruba comment and commentary about Tinubu and his government must be positive. They say it has to be because the president is Yoruba. When you hear or read stuff like this, you question their claim to Awolowo’s ideology of public service. Since they claim to be progressives of the Awolowo school, the best an ‘enemy’ like me can do is to invite their attention to Awoism and its literature. There is this quote from Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s autobiography: “The Yoruba are a fastidious, critical and discerning people. They will not do anything in politics merely to oblige a fellow Yoruba. If the Yorubaman is satisfied that your policy is good and will serve his self-interest, he will support you no matter from which ethnic group you hail.” Before I am accused of manufacturing this quote, I quickly say that it is on page 261 of the 1997 edition of the book, ‘Awo’.

Column writing is a self-inflicted draining enterprise. And, in taking up that beat, the columnist has behind his mind journalism’s famous interrogative sextet: who, what, where, when, how, and why. He may satisfy all or may not. That is where what he writes is different from what the everyday beat reporter does. This columnist has no enemy. The decision as to what to fix his eyes on, and how to plot his way through the labyrinth of interrogation of the issues is entirely his. Picking his words on the keyboard with one finger as I do, the columnist’s journalism sees ghastly scenes with humane and critical eyes. It is futile (and too late) to seek to goad him into the tribal cave of the heathen. What he does weekly are monologues of suppressed anger at the subversion of the noble in his heritage as a (Yoruba) Nigerian.

The columnist asks questions even when he knows answers won’t come. Over six weeks ago, Works minister, Dave Umahi, announced the Ibadan–Ife–Ilesha road as one of the South West roads that had got 30 per cent funding “for work to start in earnest.” Has anyone seen a one per cent work done on that road since then? Where did the money go? The Yoruba columnist must not ask those questions because the president is Yoruba. Yet, those terribly bad federal roads are in Yorubaland. How did people in this government feel when they heard President John Mahama of Ghana announce the deportation of Nigerians from the US through Ghana? Mahama said at a press conference last week that “a group of 14 deportees including Nigerians and one Gambian have already arrived in Ghana, and the government facilitated their return to their home countries.” Deported from the US to Ghana; deported again from Ghana to Nigeria.

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That is the dilemma of being a Nigerian today. Rejection abroad; hostility and suffering at home (Ilé ò gbàá, ònà ò gbàá). Japa is about fleeing a hostile country in search of safety, opportunities, and dignity. Arrival abroad reveals a reality that mocks expectation. Mass deportations from the US; far-right, anti immigrant rallies in the UK. Yet, the people in charge of our affairs think it is bastardy for a Yoruba to tell a Yoruba president and his government that they should work harder; that they should see ‘performance’ beyond serving themselves and their families; that the people of Nigeria deserve a cosy, comfortable country which works and functions as home to all.

In fairness to the president, one of his first charges to journalists was that they should hold his feet to the fire of vigilance. Nothing, so far, has suggested that he has changed his mind. But his (overzealous) men want the journalist to join the On-Your-Mandate-We-Stand choir or keep quiet. Collective silence is collective death. When did we collectively decide to be deaf and dumb? Where and when speech is duty, keeping quiet when you have a voice is a betrayal. And being silent in the face of wrong is akin to telling a lie. And our ancestors say a lie may glow and bloom but what it ultimately yields is bad, poisonous fruits (Bí irọ́ bá tan iná, kò lè so èso rere).

This writer promises to continue to be fair; he pledges to strive to write well, better and sweet without bile. But then, he should be allowed to tell the minister to minister well and the president to preside well. That is the road to our collective salvation. He will not abandon that road.